The Five Most Unusual Incidents in the History of Presidential Inaugurations

Fun Fact: Harrison’s only act of significance during his presidency was to convene a special session of congress, which he did not live long enough to attend.

James Buchannan: Presidential Poopy-Pants (March 4th, 1857)

The sanitation protocols for the city of Washington were a tad substandard in the 1850s, so it wasn’t terribly surprising that President-Elect Buchannan, along with several companions who dined with him at the National Hotel were struck with a “intestinal disorder” (probably dysentery) which made him…shall we say… uncomfortable during his inauguration. Showcasing the good judgment that would define his Presidency, Buchannan ate at the same location the night before the inauguration, and was so ill the day of, he almost did not attend. Apparently off his game, Buchannan interrupted his own speech to take the oath of office. He persevered, though, and three pairs of pants later (really!) he managed to complete the ceremony and speech.

Fun Fact: Discomfort and embarrassment aside, Buchannan fared better than some who dined with him at the National Hotel that evening. His nephew died of the dysentery, which was allegedly caused by dead rats in the Hotel’s water supply. Thereafter, the hotel replaced the customary “dead rat in your water” with the more sanitary “mint on your pillow” hospitality gesture.

Abraham Lincoln: Under the Gun (March 4th, 1861)

Lincoln’s election and ascendency to the presidency met with such bitter opposition by southerners that contemporary witnesses were sure that someone would shoot at him, or attempt to kidnap him as he took the Presidential Oath or during his inaugural speech. His ride to the capital was surrounded by marshals and cavalry, and sharpshooters stood ready on the roofs lining the route, under orders to shoot at anyone who ran towards Lincoln’s carriage. Horace Greely, editor of the New York Tribune sat behind Lincoln during his speech expecting to hear “the crack of a rifle aimed at his heart.” Lincoln would survive this and one other inauguration before being felled by an assassin’s bullet while attending the theatre four years later. Ironically, as Greely pointed out, by 1865, there was far less reason to kill him than there was in 1861.

Fun Fact: As Obama was sworn in by a Chief Justice against whose seating he had voted, so was Lincoln sworn in by a Chief Justice who opposed him politically. The Justice was Roger Tanney, the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision that denied federal jurisdiction to a black man on the grounds that he was not to be considered a U.S. citizen.

Calvin Coolidge: Sworn in by Daddy (August 2nd, 1923)

On vacation at his father’s farm in Vermont, Coolidge was awakened at 2:30 AM by his father with the news that the president, Warren Harding, had died in San Francisco some four hours earlier. After getting dressed and consulting his trusty copy of the Constitution, Coolidge discerned that one need not have any particular authority to administer the presidential oath (which is offered verbatim in the constitution), so in front of a handful of witnesses, he had his own father, under the authority invested in him as a NOTARY PUBLIC (!!!), swear him in as the 30th President of the United States.

Fun Fact: According to Coolidge himself, the witnesses to his swearing in were his wife, a U.S. Senator, his stenographer (because…who goes on vacation without a stenographer?) and his chauffeur.